Jan Kopecky’s co-driver Pavel Dresler has praised him after they raced to their fifth victory in the 2013 FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) with a storming drive on Barum Czech Rally Zlín this weekend.

The Czech stars were unbeatable in their Skoda Motorsport Fabia S2000 on their way to claim the top spot by more than one minute over countrymen Václav Pech/Petr Uhel.

Afterwards, Dresler said: “I would like to thank Honza [Jan] because on the first day he showed how fast he could drive and on the second day he showed he could drive with his brain. It’s a perfect result and one of the goals in my career.”

Skoda’s Head of Technical Development, Dr Frank Welsch, said: ​“That was an impressive performance from the Skoda works team in front of so many excited supporters. Special congratulations must go to Jan Kopecky, who is now a three-time winner here,” said Dr Frank Welsch, the head of Technical Development at ŠKODA, who was in Zlín to watch Kopecky and Dresler triumph.

Kopecky, meanwhile, was full of praise for the factory Skoda team. He said: “First of all, I’d like to thank the whole team – they did everything perfectly. I’m so happy. That is a big victory for Skoda and for us. The basis of every success is a great team and Skoda Motorsport is a perfect team. Also the car was prepared very well, it was very reliable and very fast and simply in perfect order. On Sunday I drove with safety in mind; I didn’t want to make the same mistakes from 2010 when I threw away victory.”

Up next for Kopecky and Dresler is LOTOS 70th Rally Poland from 13 – 15 September.

Read the full event report in this week’s coming issue of HANDBRAKES & HAIRPINS.

Photos by ERC:

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